Title: The Iron Giant
Author: Ted Hughes
Genre: Children's, Sci-Fi, Parable
Perhaps best known as the former poet laureate of Great Britain, as well as the husband of Sylvia Plath, one of Ted Hughes's more enduring works is undoubtedly "The Iron Giant". Widely acknowledged to be a Cold War parable, The Iron Giant follows the story of a giant robot from space who eats scrap metal, tractors, fences, cars, and anything other metal thing he can sink his iron teeth into.
The beginning of the story focuses mainly on how the villagers and farmers who are at first irate with the strange space creature come to rely on him when a dragon approaches Earth from a faraway star. The Iron Giant manages to outwit the dragon in a game of one-upmanship, challenging the threatening force to several rounds of heat-enduring tests. The dragon, who is the size of Australia and eager to devour any living thing it can, is subdued by the giant's tests, and the people of Earth come to regard the robot, in the end, with great compassion and gratitude.
The story is all about the perils of contemporary industrialized society and the negative impacts of in-group/out-group bickering and biases, and what can happen when people focus on mutually beneficial relationships, instead. The illustrations in both the older and newer editions are lovely, and accompanied well by the Dreamworks film that was released in the late 1990's. It reads leisurely and poetically, much like the short children's stories written by fellow poet e.e. cummings. A whimsical, imaginative, and timely work, as well-suited for adults as it is for children.
- Adam
Check out The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes @ the library!
